New Delhi, May 10 (IANS): Former Union Minister and Congress candidate from New Delhi Lok Sabha seat Ajay Maken on Thursday accused the Modi government of destroying public sector undertakings in last five years and that their rule will be remembered for the downfall of these institutions.

Addressing a press conference at the party office, he said: "During the last five years, the Modi government has waged a war on public sector undertakings such as MTNL, BSNL, Air India, ONGC, IARI.. to destroy them one by one, and this period will be remembered for the heavy downfall of these high-profile institutions."

Maken, who is pitted against BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi and AAP's Brijesh Goyal, also accused the Modi regime of ruining the 165-year-old Central Public Works Department and nearly a dozen other Central government institutions.

Alleging that the Modi government made a determined effort to privatize the CPWD, which had not recruited anyone in the last three years, he said that a report submitted by Ernest and Young in August 2017 suggested privatisation of the CPWD and the Modi government accepted this recommendation.

"Thereafter, the Modi government outsourced the maintenance work. The CPWD also stopped giving work to small contractors to bring in the big players into the field," he claimed.

The former Delhi Congress chief said that there was a Congress wave sweeping the national capital and an an undercurrent of anger against the BJP.

"People of Delhi are now looking up to the party with hope and expectation that only Congress can provide an able and stable government," he added.

Elections in the national capital are due on May 12 in the sixth phase. The BJP had won all the seven seats from the national capital in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.